Few things were certain in a magical girl’s life. Going to school was one of them. If only for the occasional meetup with the rest of the detention club.

It was hard to tell where the time went. One moment you were meeting up with everyone in the club room, by the next you were nearing the end of the first school term. Where had the time gone? Suki was sure it was fall or spring just a moment ago, and now they were half way through June. Once July was over, they’d have a quick summer break before classes started up again. It wasn’t like Suki could complain. There was so much drudgery between school and everything else that she wouldn’t say no to a vacation. Of course, she’d probably end up taking a summer job, but that was neither here nor there. Regardless if she had time off or not, everyone was going to be in swimsuits. When everyone was in swimsuits, everyone was a winner. She could practically see it now…

But she would have time to enjoy the real thing when it rolled around. Right now were far more pressing matters, and Suki needed to talk about them. Boss baby was a no go, as she left school early to tend to the family pyre. Bast was equally predisposed. The girl had a way of getting confused by the most ordinary of situations. Wet-Works and Chess-Nut had been absent for a while. They weren’t locals, so it was hard to be surprised by this. They’d drop by again. Eyeball and Multi-Face were always up to something, and she never felt super secure around them. Even if Eyeball was the first detention club girl she kissed and Multi-Face was oddly clingy. This meant she would have to seek help from Rainbow, Nyx, and Bedshaker. Bedshaker was not really ideal, but she was pretty much a package deal with Nyx. Rainbow on the other hand had always been there for her and was a great partner, so including her in this emergency meeting was essential. Not only that, but it made her feel a little safer when Bedshaker was around.

The detention club didn’t typically do after school activities, not right after the school closed at least. But for what Suki needed, now was the best time to get everyone together. But she couldn’t just stand out in the open. What if Bedshaker came first?

So she laid under the table. It wasn’t a great hiding spot, but maybe Bedshaker wouldn’t notice initially? It wasn't like she had been smoking.

---

Life had taken some funny turns. Average life into orohan-dom, then swinging around into the life of a Dark Magical Girl trying to wrangle a pack of girls who were the antithesis of the word 'conformity.'

And as Summer approached, Roche was having to contend with a downward trend in activity. Or, in layman's terms, she was running out of distractions from her train wreck of a social life. Well, that would imply one existed in the first place to be a ruin of, whereas the reality was more akin to a disaster that had long since been cleared up, paved over, and replaced with a parking lat that was used largely for drug dealers.

"Guh." Her noise of disgust was limp as she paused in the halls outside the appointed meeting room, a sag to her shoulders she only indulged for the lack of company. Her eye panned to the doorknob and she slowly drew in a breath. Feeling the air fill her lungs she straightened her posture, her track team wind breaker shifting noisily.

For as much stress as having an entire club of super powered young women was, the absence of most of them was leaving her feeling a tad rudderless. Even the track team was noticing she was being less abrasive with them, though it was far past the point she could hope for a friendlier connection with that mundane lot.

Feeling like she was projecting a sure enough facade she stepped inside, finding the room initially empty.

If not for an untied shoelace trailing out from a table.

Roche pinched the bridge of her nose and counted internally back from ten. It was ineffective to say the least, but it kept her from saying the first thing that would come to mind when finding Suki hiding from her.

"Get off the floor, Suki." She said, the command coming across as tired and weathered as her prior efforts to pacify the flighty ex-partner. "Or don't. I'm not going to force you either way, but that can't be comfortable."

""

The months following her induction into Rei’s Detention Club had passed in a dizzying blur to the Neon Tempest, the depressing monotony of her horrid home life punctuated by equally depressing and monotonous club meetings, marked by tiresome attempts at socialization and team-building, along with the cherished moments of glorious exhilaration that came with slaying Miseria in their hundreds. One would think that, over such a considerable span of time, Nyxia might have made a deeper connection with at least one of her club mates, yet, aside from a general agreement to keep her caustic commentary on her fellow Dark Magical Girls to the level of “harmless” teasing, the Neon Tempest was still as anti-social as ever. Even her initial “bonding session” with her teammate Roche, aka Earthshaker, had resulted in little more than her displaying the most minor level of cordiality to the code keeper. However, while Nyxia might now treat the track star with more respect than the average club member, she was still merely a teammate, not a friend. Suki “Oros the Joyful” Oyama, on the other hand, wasn’t even that…

“Now why am I not surprised a pathetic worm like you is crawling around on the floor?” Nyxia quipped from where she was perched upon the club room’s open windowsill, her mouth curled into a mocking sneer as a light breeze played through her bright teal hair. As usual, she had arrived to the clubroom transformed. Since she was far too sickly to attend classes, running across the rooftops in her magical girl form was the easiest way to make it to club meetings from her family’s palatial estate, and since she would never willingly allow anyone to see her true self, she didn’t bother changing back once she’d arrived. Today, both Roche and Suki had arrived before her, although she ignored the former to focus her caustic attention solely on the latter. “Are you looking for ingredients to make more monsters for my precious baby to kill?” the Neon Tempest inquired as she lovingly caressed the enormous energy cannon propped up against the wall beside her. “Or are you just trying to find a snack for your disgusting self?”

---

Months had flown by, taking with them basically nothing of value. Tsubomi hadn't seen most of the club members in quite some time, and neither had she seen the Light Girls. Which was fine with her, less conflict meant less food, but with the school term coming to an end she more than made up for that. She couldn't remember much of what had happened since Hommerah had shown up that day, but that wasn't surprising when she usually couldn't remember what had happened the day before last. Even with the club seeming to fall into disarray, she'd stayed herself, which is to say she didn't pay a lot of attention to the "why" of things...

She arrived last at the club room, just in time to not hear what was being said by Earthshaker and Nyxia, but still soon enough to see Suki hiding under a table. She looked around for their Mascot, but couldn't see it, so she sat in a chair and watched, waiting to see what was going on. "Hello."

One by one, they piled in.

Typically, Suki would wait for a few people to show up before making an entrance. It was the best way to ensure that she was never alone with Bedshaker. But this was difficult to do when you were the one calling the meeting. She could hear her on the other side of the door, but the time to change her hiding spot had long passed, and she was quickly noticed. But maybe if she just ignored her, someone else would arrive before long.

And while Suki was right, it wasn’t exactly the person she was hoping to find. Nyx would probably just watch Bedshaker pound her to dust if anything happened. She was surrounded now, and it didn’t seem like being silent would be a winning strategy for much longer.

"Uh, well, actually…” Suki’s head twitched. Tsubomi had just taken a seat not too far away from the table. Salvation! She scurried out from under the table like a crab.When she stood up, her spine made an audible crack. "Oh hi Tsubomi! I guess that’s everyone for now?” Of course it was, everyone else had other things to tend to. "But to answer your question, Nyxia Torrentia: Neon Tempest of the Ultraviolet Rainbow, the answer to your question is both!”

Suki pulled a page out from between two books and slapped it down on the table. It had originally been the cover of a teen fashion magazine, but parts of other photos had been glued over it to frankenstein a portrait of some sort. "We’ve been hearing about a new magical girl for a while now, but nobody’s actually seen her. You know how Boss Baby is, they tend to leave well enough alone if they don’t directly threaten the Detention Club. But I asked around and got a few details about a ‘spirit’ running across some rooftops. She’s got wild red hair, uh, red eyes, uh, a tight dress, uh, and her uh…” Suki patted her chest. "She’s pretty top heavy. Some guys told me she was bigger than Roach. And had a bunch of dragons coming out of her back. I tried to make a picture of her by clipping out pictures from magazines, and the people who saw her said it sort of looked like her!”

Suki gestured towards the picture she made. It was difficult to determine how accurate it was without knowing what the woman in question looked like, but there might have been other issues with it. But that would be for every girl observing the picture to decide for themselves.



"I took some liberties with the outfit, since everyone described it differently. B-But a lot of people see her in the same spot!” Suki shot a smile at everyone. "They usually see her jumping over the flower shop juuuuuuust as the sun sets. The Miseria don’t come out until total darkness, so we should have plenty of time to investigate this before our nightly hunt starts. Wadaya think guys? Sounds interesting, right?” Suki looked at everyone to gauge their reactions.

---

Some of the former vibrancy returned with Nyxia and Tsubomi entering with their respective aplomb and passivity. Roche would have once called the feeling rising within her the beginning of a migraine but it was more a warm familiarity that just so happened to hurt.

If nothing else, Nyxia's caustic tongue seemed enough of a lashing to force Suki off the floor and to begin explaining just what this meeting of hers was about. There was a not insignificant part of the Track Captain that though the Laser fetishist was correct in assuming this was a prelude to another picnic, as even though the blood manipulator had a compulsive need to cower before Roche she didn't let that stop her from conspiring to host poorly planned get togethers.

"Huh, color me surprised. This is reasonably well thought out." Perhaps it was a tad offensive to sound genuinely impressed that Suki's presentation- Barring the garish drawing fashioned from a serial killer's idea of how to cut up a magazine- was well thought out and actually worth their time. She had a goal, a location, a time, and the prospect of a dragon themed magical girl was mildly interesting for the much-depleted club.

"Well done, Suki. I think it's a great idea to investigate this together." she favored her ex-partner with a toothy grin, hoping against hope that she wouldn't misinterpret it as a threatening expression and skitter off like a beaten spouse once more.

Unsurprisingly, Suki didn’t even try to hide her disgusting depravity, causing Nyxia’s disdainful sneer to remain fixed upon her amethyst-tinged face. Tsubomi’s entrance was, as usual, the epitome of understated, and thus went without acknowledgment from the Neon Tempest. Instead, the teal-haired young woman focused her attention on the ‘artistic rendition’ of Hibusa Town’s newest Magical Girl that Suki proceeded to reveal to them. Despite her contempt for the blood witch, Nyxia had to concede that the image was surprisingly well-composed for a thrown-together collage. If the mystery Magical Girl in question was actually real (and at least vaguely resembled Suki’s recreation), then she certainly seemed like a force to be reckoned with. That said, Nyxia’s hunger for violence was primarily directed at the Miseria. She had no real interest in fighting another Magical Girl, regardless of if they were light or dark. Speaking of, there didn’t seem to be any indication of what side of the “spectrum” this dragon girl belonged to, although, if she was dark, it was a good bet that the ‘too cool for words’ Rei had already made contact with her. Then again, Rei had been even more enigmatic than usual of late, so maybe this new girl would be able to escape the Detention Club’s suffocating grasp? Though even if she did, she might not be so fortunate to escape Suki’s…

Yes, Nyxia reflected, the real reason behind the romance-obsessed Suki’s desire to find this girl was nothing more than a desperate attempt to acquire yet another romantic partner, ideally one who was depraved enough to tolerate being around her for an extended period of time. Still, the idea of seeing the mystery girl in action, especially if that action was beating the shit out of an overly-affectionate Suki, was reason enough for the Neon Tempest to tag along on this little expedition. Indeed, if this dragon girl was as fearsome a presence as she was claimed to be, then she’d no doubt draw no small number of Miseria to her (even if Suki hoped to meet her before the fall of night was complete), and Nyxia delighted in the thought of slaughtering them all before dragon girl could even get in a single strike…

“Why not?” Nyxia mused. “After all, seeing all your pitiful hopes get smashed to pieces never ceases to bring me joy.”

---

It would be an impressive feat to gauge Tsubomi's reaction from her expression. She stared at the recreation of the potential magical girl for what likely seemed to the others as too long, but to her felt like the appropriate amount of time. To say that thoughts raced through her mind would be a lie, but they did go at their usual pace towards a conclusion. The flower shop? Dragons? ... Snapdragons? She'd like a nap, dragon, she decided. That was all the motivation she needed; catch the girl then go to sleep, an excuse to skip out and hit the hay earlier than usual, since they'd have done extra credit.

By the time she finished thinking these few things, the others had already voiced their affirmatives. So Tsubomi nodded once and did the same. "Okay." She stood up, ready to go, and then sat back down a few seconds later when she realized that it wasn't time yet. Lazily she rolled her head from side to side before looking towards the door, wondering if any of the others would be there today. When nobody else showed up, she drifted her head back to Suki. Like a tickertape, a new thought crossed through her mind. She'd spent months without letting out her built up energy from her magic... Would this dragon girl be what finally got her to spend it?

Three magical girls, all with different reactions.

Bed “Roach” Shaker had the sort of reaction that Suki expected. Ever since the “incident,” she had been making an effort to get closer to Suki. Closer as in distance wise. Suki was a little fuzzy on the details, but she vaguely remembered Nyx instructing them to fight, at which point a transformed Suki took advantage of the fact that Roach hadn’t transformed yet and basically used her magic to seduce her into submission. It was an effective way to defeat her opponent without actually harming them. However, it required Suki to take away Roach’s emblem, wrap her in tentacles, and finish her off with a barrage of kisses. This detail was a little fuzzy, but Suki almost remembered stripping her bra through her sleeve during the brief exchange. It was hard to say. When Suki looked at her collection this morning it wasn’t there. But even without that detail, it was a humiliating way to lose a sparring match, especially as the club’s code enforcer, who should be strong enough to handle any individual club member. Any effects her magic might have had on Roach had long worn off. Needless to say, there was only one reason why Roach would regard her with any kindness after that. She was the type to beat the track club members into shape, and they never did anything to her.

Nyx’s reaction was more of a surprise. Yes, she worded it in a particularly unflattering way, but a flat out rejection would have been a far worse blow to Suki’s plans. Thinking back on it, her relationship with Nyx was almost the opposite of Roach. They seemed to get along fine when they first met, but then after Suki beat Roach during the “incident”, it seemed like it soured her to Suki. Or was it the food she made that day? It was so long ago she couldn’t remember. But Nyx loved blowing apart Endless Eclipse with her ray gun. Suki would have called that night a success. Yet she had regarded her poorly ever since. Had she not beaten Roach fair and square? Did she find her powers repulsive? It was hard to know. Nyx only came to the school when club activities were going on, so it wasn’t like they could talk it out between classes.

Rainbow’s reaction was also expected, but that had less to do with some far off event that shaped their relationship and more to do with her familiarity with Tsubomi. She wasn’t clear on the details, but Tsubomi had a really bad trip and lost the ability to feel her own emotions. It was even weirder when you realized her magic was empathic by nature and was bolstered by being saturated with emotion. It was as tragic as being a deaf musician or a blind painter, but there wasn’t anything she could do. Even her most powerful spells didn’t raise any desire in Tsubomi at all. It was really sad. Suki sometimes wondered if there was some way to break the curse, or restore her emotions. She didn’t even really get how Tsubomi could live like that. If Suki was like that, she wasn’t sure if she would ever do anything.

Expected or not, all of the answers made Suki uncomfortable for one reason or another. Roach’s strange optimism, Nyx’s foreshadowing, and Tsubomi’s attempts to be optimistic.

"Uh, heh, right…” Suki took one last look at her handiwork before folding it up and slipping it into her pocket. "Welp, let’s get a move on! We’ll have to look over the place and see if we notice anything strange.” Was there a reason to come up with definitive plans when you were recruiting dark magical girls? They were all going to do what they wanted anyway.

Except…

Suki took hold of Tubomi’s wrist and ran out the door with her.

---

Hibusa Town was small, and so was its flower shop. It wasn’t any bigger than the average living room. That said, there were plenty of reasons for the inhabitants to buy flowers. The end of the school season, birthdays, weddings, and visits to shrines, the hospital, funerals, and gravestones were always better if you brought flowers. Despite the shop being in a small, outdated building, it managed to do well enough to stay afloat. The interior was almost filled to the brim with flowers. An older woman was taking everything inside in preparation to close for the night. It wouldn’t be long now. The sun was already dipping below the horizon.

There were a few buildings around, many of which were taller than the flower shop. It was located at the edge of town near a three-way intersection, so there were ample places to watch from. Everyone knew that a magical girl’s favorite place to run was along rooftops, so that was where Suki decided to wait. They just had to stay out of the dragon girl’s assumed path so that she didn’t get spooked.

"Feels like it’s been months since we did something together, heh!” Did Tsubomi even enjoy small talk? Did it make her tired? Suki had always avoided asking. "Did you want to do something later? I mean, we never played that arcade game. We should do that if you’re not busy after this.”

An interesting aspect that was seemingly inherent to all Magical Girls, regardless of affiliation, was that they were completely invisible to the city’s mundane populace. This was both an advantage and a disadvantage, as far as Nyxia was concerned, since although she could go completely unnoticed by normal people, another Magical Girl, like the one they were trying to find, would spot her right away. Thus, the intelligent thing to do, especially if one assumed the mystery girl would be moving along the rooftops, would be to have the transformed Nyxia wait in hiding on a nearby roof, while the other three members of their party remained untransformed and waited in the flower shop. Yet, Suki had instead chosen to wait on the rooftops “in hiding”, along with Tsubomi, and the Neon Tempest had no desire to remain in a small space with any member of the Detention Club for what could be a considerable amount of time. As such, and unconcerned with how the others felt about it, Nyxia had chosen to browse the flower shop’s outdoor displays.

For as far back as she could remember, Nyxia had always loved flowers, but the crippling allergies of her weak and worthless mundane self had prevented her from ever being in close proximity to them. Her beloved twin brother, Kaito, had often purchased her colorful flower plushies and even made her several beautiful origami flowers, but that was the closest she had come. At least, until she became a Magical Girl. Now that she had access to a healthy, athletic body, the Neon Tempest saw no reason to pass up the opportunity to thoroughly enjoy the shop’s beautiful flowers first hand. Slowly strolling from one display to the next, she bent over to smell the pleasing fragrance of each blossom, closing her eyes and sighing in blissful contentment as she did so.

Oh, Kaito… she thought wistfully. If only you could be here to enjoy this moment with me…

As the elderly shopkeeper began bringing the flowers inside, Nyxia continued her appreciative browsing, going so far as to follow the woman back into the shop. Even if she ended up getting locked in, the Neon Tempest knew it would be easy enough to just kick the door open, and if the mysterious dragon girl actually did make an appearance, Nyxia was confident that Suki’s incredibly loud, and incredibly pathetic, attempts to get the girl’s attention would be easy enough to hear.

---

"Huh." Earthshaker stood transformed, leaning against a table of potted azaleas as she watched a shockingly lax Nyxia. It was inevitable that the laser-fetishist had to have a soft spot that wasn't entirely due to lasers or her departed brother, but she really hadn't expected it to be anything this flowery.

She looked back over her shoulder, spying Suki and Tsubomi perched on a rooftop, as unsubtle as could be expected of the pair. Yet again failing to let her have an actual conversation and try to dispel this bizarre belief that she wanted to pound Suki's face into hamburger meat.

Not that it wouldn't be a little cathartic after all the trouble she's caused me. Earthshaker would admit in the safety of her mind, only to resume her silent vigil of the flowershop. While Nyxia was enjoying the sights and smells like a woman starved, the dark-skinned magical girl was keeping an eye upon the regular customers and employees.

After all, if normal people couldn't see them, then whomever reacted to their strange appearances would have to be a Magical Girl, transformed or otherwise.

"Though I suppose if this washes out we can always pick up some flowers for the club room....."

---

Tsubomi found herself being dragged along by the wrist, which made for an interesting moment when she was led to a rooftop by Suki. Sitting there with her she watched the sun as it was slowly setting, making for what some might consider a rather beautiful scene around the flower shop. So Tsubomi watched as the other girls, specifically not Suki, chose to not use the various effective viewing spots and instead to focus on the store itself. She wondered somewhat if they were expecting the shop owner to be the girl...

"Feels like it’s been months since we did something together, heh! Did you want to do something later? I mean, we never played that arcade game. We should do that if you’re not busy after this.”

Blink. She tried to think back. Had they not played an arcade game? Had they even talked about doing so? If they did, it was hard to remember. But the simple fact was that Tsubomi wasn't busy after, or ever really, so she nodded slowly. "Mm. Okay."

Maybe she should have transformed for this? Sure, she didn't feel especially different when she did, but her mind was always in better shape with her hair different colors, and when she was transformed she could certainly act. Trying to do so when in her natural form was too troublesome, so she didn't bother to try. Would it even be interesting to play a game with her if she was as slow as she usually was? She didn't know the answer. By the time she finished these thoughts the sun was notably lower than when she started them.

"Do you think she'll be friendly?" It took some time, but she asked her question. It would probably upset the others if they recruited a new girl to the club, though they never seemed to show up lately, so maybe it would be okay. But who would be the dragon girl's partner? Would she get one? Did her dragons count as a partner? If she attacked, would she be able to handle four of the club members? "I don't think she'll be friendly."

Stake outs were never very exciting things, but Suki was happy to see that Nyx was enjoying herself. Not that her love of flowers was any big mystery. Anyone who looked like a bushel of grapes had to have an interest in plants. Yet at the same time, it wasn’t something that Suki would have attributed to her. But maybe she should. She never really liked the “Nyx” nickname, and it was always supposed to be a placeholder until she found a new one. “Grape” definitely wasn’t a very good nick name for her, but Suki would be lying if she said she hadn’t considered it in the past. But this wasn’t an interest in berries that Nyx was showing here, she was loving those flowers. So a good nickname would be…

"Violet.”

Suki’s eyes were on Violet, but her ears were listening to everything Rainbow told her. Truth be told, Suki was hoping beyond hope that Rainbow would start chatting with her, at least about normal things.But perhaps when you lacked emotions, the only thing you could really do is just move between tasks that other people think are important. And if that was the case, it was up to Suki to be Rainbow’s compass to guide her to where she needed to be.

"Friendly is relative, Tsubomi!” She wrapped a hand around Rainbow’s shoulders and pointed at the flower shop. "Sure! Violet can come across as a little gruff sometimes, but look at her now! She looks like me when I surf 4chan’s Yuri image board! At least the lower half of her face. My eyes are usually open, because you know…I’m…”

Wow, Suki sure was close to Rainbow. Actually, no. She was really close to Tsubomi, and her amber eyes were staring right into hers. Usually when Suki gets this close to people they do everything in their power to pull away. The only person who had been closer to her than this was Sayuri, who gave her a hug that one time. But that felt like forever ago. And that was just a quick hug. Tsubomi was right in the danger zone and she wasn’t even moving.

"...Um…”

Her lips were right there. Suki had kissed quite a few people in her time, but she had always been transformed. No one would willingly kiss Suki in her current state. Her filed teeth, the scent of ash on her breath, no one would ever look at that and just accept it, would they? But if they did, would it look like this?

"...Ah…”

Like, Tsubomi technically wouldn’t mind, right? She couldn’t even be surprised by it. If Tsubomi felt uncomfortable, she could always try and get away. And if she did that, Suki would absolutely let her go. But that wasn’t what was happening here. Which meant.

"Because… I like to see what’s happening in front of me.” Suki rubbed the back of her head. "And I decided to start calling Nyx Violet. You know, like the flower.” Suki cleared her throat and looked ahead.

Dragons!

Just as the sun was setting! Multi colored serpents with wings seemed to hover in the sky. Their long tails disappeared behind a line of trees.

"We gotta get the others! I’ll see if I can stall them until the others arrive!”

Suki bounded off the rooftop. When she landed, she had become Oros the Joyful, and skated towards the treeline, disappearing in a red flash.

Nyxia continued her leisurely stroll amongst the flowers, heedless of her partner’s presence, until the shop’s owner began preparing to lock up. With a resigned sigh, the Neon Tempest followed the woman out of the shop, giving one last wistful look at her beloved flowers before stepping through the door. As she stood next to the elderly woman who owned the shop, Nyxia idly wondered if this was in fact the dragon girl they were seeking, before dismissing that possibility as unimportant. Others had pondered at length over the possibility of adult women becoming magical girls, along with the apparently highly divisive topic of magical boys, noting popular theories of how magical women might be powerful enough to hide their presence from lesser, teenaged magicals, or that they actually took on teenaged forms themselves. Talk would then inevitably turn to what would happen if a teenaged magical girl simply got older. Would she just stop physically aging, making a magical girl virtually immortal, unless killed by a monster or fellow magical (the most common assumption by far), or would she lose her powers once a certain age had been reached (or keep her powers and just age normally)? Aside from the club’s mysterious advisor (who claimed to be a veteran magical woman, but was more enigmatic than even Rei), no one had ever encountered anyone who could truly be called a genuine magical woman, and so the mystery persisted.

Regardless, Nyxia was utterly unconcerned with such things. Indeed, aside from killing enough Miseria to bring her brother back, she really didn’t care about much of anything, or anyone. She held no love for her fellow dark magical girls, yet also felt no hatred towards those “still in the light”. Therefore, while the old woman before her might have been their target, even if she was, and regardless of whether she was Light or Dark, the Neon Tempest’s response would be unchanged. She would simply tell her that there was a disgusting pervert nearby who wanted to be dominated by her, and she was just here to watch the ensuing curb stomp. Yet, all-too-quickly, that possibility disintegrated like a Miseria’s remains on the wind as she watched Suki leap from a nearby rooftop, transform into Oros the Joyful, and skate off towards the nearby forest on a trail of blood, having apparently found the “actual” dragon girl. Predictably, she was shouting about it in a wild frenzy that was impossible to miss.

What a pathetic loser…

“I guess we should follow her, huh?” Nyxia inquired of her partner as she stretched herself out. The Neon Tempest was pretty sure Suki was the fastest among them, especially when it came to chasing girls, but Nyxia didn’t want to outpace the blood witch, merely arrive in time to hopefully watch dragon girl kick her needy ass…

---

"So it would seem, Nyxia." Roche sighed, her cloak ruffled as she rolled her shoulders as the emerged onto the curbside, standing beside the oblivious flower shop owner as she fussed over locking up for the day. She'd long since been inured to the oddity of being invisible to the mundane world of Miso, only the greatest spikes of magic and the collateral damage borne from smashing Miseria being the only evidence of their existence.

The benefits of being a ghost that could touch and steal far eclipsed the costs. She didn't even need to pay for takeout if she could just take it off the counter.

With Suki flying over head, screaming her head off like a loon, she found yet another reason to be grateful no one else could hear them. It was simply balanced against the despair that the fastest among them was also the worst suited to making first contact with an unknown magical girl.

"This is going to be a mess. I only hope it doesn't turn violent." Earthshaker's head shook ruefully, knowing they weren't that fortunate as she took off at a loping run. When she glanced back and saw the flower store owner was far enough away she leapt, a crack of stored force sending her hurtling up to the rooftops as she chased after the sight of surging blood stretching out after the kaiju girl.

---

"Friendly is relative." That seemed pretty true. Most things are relative, at least to Tsubomi. Though she'd never really thought that way before, it certainly fit. The thought stuck in her mind as Suki seemed to fumble her way through her own thoughts. Suki was already running off to chase the dragons when Nyxia's new nickname registered. Another flower, huh? Then came the recognition of Suki leaving. Oh snap, dragons were here. Glancing down she could see Nyxia, Violet apparently, slowly getting ready to follow now-Oros. Looking just past that point showed Earthshaker jumping well into the air to do so as well.

Time seemed to speed up for Tsubomi as she herself transformed into Acid Drop. Like shaking off a fantastic sleep, or at least a portion of a good nap, her mind cleared somewhat. She wasn't sure why that happened when she used her magic but she figured it had to be related since it always happened. It integrated well with her need to act when in Acid Drop form, so she never really thought of it as a bad thing. Tiring maybe, but not bad. Maybe if she wasn't so overfull she might be more aware of the feelings of others... Months of hoarding doesn't leave much need for that, though. And with the NTOTUR around chances were that she wouldn't be offloading anytime soon, at least in regular hunting.

She jumped down, taking the opposite approach to Earthshaker, and began speed-walking towards where her partner had gone. Not too fast, not too slow. Without the Boss there to give commendations or reasons to not fail, the biggest thing to watch for was Oros' safety, so...

She began jogging instead.

No matter how fast Oros skated away, the wind couldn’t remove the sensation of Tsubomi’s breath from her face. It was nice, sure, but if she couldn’t focus up before she met the dragon magical girl, there would be problems. Or maybe this was actually a good thing? Would having her close encounter with Tsubomi’s breath get her mind off of the dragon girl’s other assets? But what if she was into being gawked at? Oros wouldn’t have long to think about such matters. After skating a few blocks down, she passed the treeline that marked the town's outer limits.

Hibusa Town seemed to exist in an impossible intersection between the mountains, the coastline, and a giant city, with this particular exit faced towards the latter. It was quite far off, but even from here it was possible to see the distant skyscrapers. Nobody knew the city's real name, but it had received the nickname “City of Light” due to how it looked at night. The light pollution created a halo of golden light that made it stand out from the night sky. Allegedly the city was teeming with light magical girls, who occasionally wandered into Hibusa Town to “make a difference.” If you believed the rumors, Schrade used to run the detention club at the city of light before relocating her base of operations here.

But what often got forgotten about was that there was a really nice field between the treeline and the forest right before the city. It didn’t offer much in the way of seclusion, but it was a great place to do things that required a lot of space. The dragon magical girl saw fit to display her power by floating dragons in the sky. Though it was weir. At this distance, Oros noticed a long string bound the dragons to the magical girl’s hand.

”Wait a second…”

Looking at the magical girl herself, her outfit seemed oddly familiar. No, not just the outfit, the girl in question seemed familiar too. Her large, ample breasts, slender fingers, beauty that could stop a parade, and bleached blond hair that looked red under the setting sun. The mysterious magical girl in question was none other than Misoka, the most beautiful, talented, and altruistic girl in school. She was also 100% not a magical girl, and only wore a fancy outfit as part of her good-doing club, or whatever she called it.

Suddenly, Tsubomi’s breath felt very distant.

---

Nyxia strode, Acid Drop jogged, But Roche bound after the blood witch. Oros was out of sight, but the blood trail did lead straight past the treeline into the field. If Roche bothered to look ahead, they might notice that the dragons may have been box kites. But if they kept their eye on the ground, they might have noticed a human sized ball of fire leaping up at them. And if they didn’t, they certainly felt the heat on their skin as it got closer.

Woosh!

As the fireball passed her by, Roche could make out someone inside. It was difficult to make out their exact shape, but the grin they shot Roche let them know that the fireball they were inside was very much not causing them any discomfort whatsoever. That, and Roche only got a brief glimpse inside before it shot past her. The grinning fireball flew in an arc and landed directly on the roof of the flower shop. This triggered a small scale explosion that threw flames in every direction. The explosion shattered every window in the small building, including the glass doors. Some of the flowers were thrown through these newly made openings, and caught fire in the ensuing nova of flame. A figure kneeled in the crater of the roof. In either hand she held a burning miseria. Before she could stand back up, the creatures burned into smoke. She watched the smoke join the burning pedals as they circled each other in the air.

Red eyes, wild red hair, tight outfit, well endowed, dragon heads coming out of her back. This girl definitely met the description that Suki had given them. Though something that hadn’t come up was how high tech she looked. The dragons that loomed over her shoulders were not made of scale and flesh, but plate and steel. The dragon girl could just as easly be compared to a cyborg with all the metal her body held. Her feet were just a pair of pronged metal toes and an elevated heel.

"Watch where you’re flying next time. I nearly hit my head on this building because you dove in front of me.” She placed a hand on her hip before looking over the three dark magical girls. "So what’s going on? Are you going to start a free for all? Or…”

While it was true that magical girls were invisible to normal humans, that was only true if they didn’t use their magic. The reason why there were so many spirit sightings in Hibusa Town was because when magical girls went all out, they did turn up as spirits. This was probably how reports of the dragon girl started to circulate.

The older woman had been hurt by the explosion. Her arm had been sliced open by a shard of glass, but she was running in and out of the small building to save as many of the flowers as possible. The building itself was intact, but a lot of the outside fixtures had caught fire. If the flames spread, it would get a lot worse.

While Nyxia had initially strode down the street at a leisurely pace, she was still planning on performing a magical girl strength-enhanced jump, much like Earthshaker had, just as soon as she had gotten far enough away from the flower shop to not cause any inadvertent collateral damage. However, that was before a sizable fireball appeared out of nowhere and nearly collided with her partner, right in the middle of one of the tribal girl’s leaps. Thankfully, a mid-air collision was narrowly averted, but far worse was to follow. Far, far worse…

As Nyxia watched in mounting horror, the fireball continued its flight overhead, until it crashed into the roof of the flower shop with a fiery explosion.

“The flowers…” Nyxia gasped, her eyes going wide in horror, before narrowing with barely-contained outrage, her now-clenched teeth grinding together.

The flames parted to reveal a cybernetically enhanced, draconic young woman, obviously the girl the now notably absent Oros had been not-so-secretly thirsting for. Yet, that was currently of zero importance to the Neon Tempest, as were the Miseria the girl had just killed, and the words she had started speaking. No, at this precise moment, only two thoughts filled the entirety of Nyxia’s mind- the location the dragon girl was standing atop, and the effect her presence was having on it…

“Get offa there, you FUCKING BITCH!!!” the Neon Tempest snarled, her voice suffused with utter fury. “YER KILLIN’ THA FUCKIN’ FLOWERS!!!”

Even as she shouted this, Nyxia charged up the Omega Obliterator and fired a cracking energy beam at the fire hydrant just in front of the flower shop, her bright neon-teal hair streaming behind her from the back blast. As expected, the ruinous cylinder of annihilation blasted the hapless hydrant apart, sending a geyser of water shooting into the air to rain down on the growing blaze that was beginning to engulf the small building. Then she turned it upon the dragon girl.

“Get offa there, or I’m gonna fuckin’ BLOW YOU OFF!!!”

---

Earthshaker's focus was set on Oros' trail, and once it became visible she was focusing on the distant dragons. The dragons that were clearly kites, even if impressive kites. If her flight had gone unmolested she might have seen who was flying them and groaned at how obvious it was that there was only one girl in their school who could somehow fly four massive kites all on her own without issue. If almost every member of the club hadn't checked for themselves, none of them would have believed she wasn't a Magical Girl.

So naturally she was caught entirely off guard by the fireball streaking past her, a near collision with a fiery beauty whose mechanized, gleeful aspect was oddly similar to Nyxia. The tribal Magical Girl arrested her momentum, teeth grit from the sudden deceleration as she released a blast of stored energy to halt herself. When she landed and righted herself towards the crashed fireball, it was to see from the street level a Magical Girl clad in heavy metal with twin draconian heads rising over her shoulders.

And because when it rained, it poured upon Roche in excess, the girl had set fire to the flower shop that had proven the only source of tranquility she'd seen in Nyxia. "Well, diplomacy was over rated anyway."

Suki could cower and complain about Roche all she wanted, but if the choice was between the club and an outsider, Earthshaker would always back the club girls. Taking bounding steps she returned to the flower shop in time for Nyxia to blast off the fire hydrant. While it's rain would help it was undirected and slow. Manifesting her shield, Roche angled it over the hydrant and directed the outpouring directly into the store. To a bystander it might be quite remarkable, but Roche was busy storing the energy of the water blasting her shield till her tattoos glowed as bright as Nyxia's.

"We were hoping to talk to you, but first we're gonna need an apology for burning this flower shop."

---

A blazing fireball came flying over her head and nearly collided with Earthshaker, but Acid Drop knew that the two other girls could handle whatever that was. But something was wrong. Oros wasn't following behind the flames. Looking further in the direction she had gone showed several more dragons in the air, though these appeared to be paper rather than metal. Had something happened? Did the dragon girl already beat Oros? Doubtful, since she wasn't acting like she had even seen her. After a glance over her shoulder towards the flower shop, she decided to press on, leaving the potential fight to the others.

It was a bit more jogging before Acid Drop caught up with her partner. She seemed to be transfixed on a girl holding the dragon kites. A girl who looked familiar, a schoolmate? Tsubomi never bothered to learn names even when she was at a high enough mental processing level to be able to, but this one was a popular girl, wasn't she?

"Heya. The girl you made a collage of showed up. Though her dragons are made of metal." Honestly, Acid Drop wasn't sure what Oros would do. And if she preferred to stay here, watching the kite holder, that would be fine. But at least now she knew that she hadn't gotten into a new fight that would be drawn in to the others.